


A Nerd...Or Not? (a.k.a. The Agent, The Dog and the Crazy Lunatic)

by chocalice



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Inu's got a potty mouth, What the Hell was I thinking?, mentions of torture and violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-24
Updated: 2017-05-08
Packaged: 2018-03-19 11:29:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 15,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3608448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chocalice/pseuds/chocalice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Despite doing a good job at pretending to be one, Kagome Higurashi is NOT a regular teenager...so it really shouldn't come as a surprise when she is given an assingment with one of the few people on earth she genuinely cannot stand to go after a conceited bastard trying to take over Japan. Or the world; but really, who's keeping track?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Meeting Everyone

_Winter 2014—Sokui ken Tanjoubi Festival, Kyoto, Japan_

 

 

_Considering the circumstances it was still a relatively quiet night. He stood atop the hill overseeing Okazaki park, the liveliest and most direct route for his destination. Had he been a different man –demon, not man. He stopped being a “man” a long time ago—he may have chosen an other way. A not so public one, one where it was sure he would succeed unnoticed._

 

_His impatience, however, won out on the notion of remaining unnoticed._

 

_Also, if no one knew of his success, his satisfaction would never be able to compare to the joy he was sure to feel as soon as the rest of the world would submit to his new reign of terror._

 

_A slight shiver came upon his body at the thought._

 

_The snow crunched underneath his boots while he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, mentally scolding his rotten leg which refused to heal properly; the wound the wretched miko had given him all those years ago still showing up even after having to resort to replacing the appendage once every moon cycle._

 

_Soon this no longer would be necessary though._

 

_Looking down once more he noted that the streets were still too quiet and empty for him to start. But he knew more and more people would still show up, after all, the Sokui ken Tanjoubi Festival was one of the biggest, if not the biggest festival in all of Japan. For weeks the preparations had been going on for this night to commemorate the anniversary of enthronement and the Emperor’s birthday._

 

_The city of Kyoto had been decorated to its fullest; all houses and streets had been cleaned to finesse, flags and banners congratulating the emperor and bearing prayers for another fine, prosperous year hung upon doors and windows and the traditional lampion lanterns had been hung, in thousands distributed throughout all of the city creating the illusion of a carpet of light enfolding it. Kyoto had outdone itself this year, promising its citizens the greatest spectacle of all time. And the moment the entire town will be on the streets to celebrate would be the moment he strikes. He didn’t have to wait very long for the streets to be filled with more and more people. As soon as he noticed the main square being completely filled with people he knew it was time. Meticulously covering himself with his white fur cloak he slowly descended into Okazaki square, paying attention to draw as little attention to him as possible. Observing the people on his way down, the man in the white fur cloak had to reflect on a single thought which had repeatedly entered his mind over the long course of his life._

 

_Humans were indeed very amusing._

 

_As soon as any cause for “celebration” came up they would suddenly indulge their deep rooted sense of vanity. The women dressed up in their finest Kimonos and spent hours and hours creating the most elaborate hairstyles while the men wore their precious yukatas, some even bearing decorative swords or katanas, none of which were actually sharp enough to be used, to pay respect to this highest festivity and appear more majestic than they actually were. They walked about the streets, rushing from one stand to the next to get some food, play some games, have their fortunes read to them and generally enjoy the night distracting themselves from their usually so stressful life. Children were laughing on the streets, couples strolling around and seniors basking in the glorious old times._

 

_It was a perfect night for his purpose._

 

_With everyone’s attention drawn to the various spectacles no one would notice him wandering on the streets towards the eastern end of the city, no one paid attention to him as he walked on and on in his wide robes and with various katanas hung on him._

 

_He of course had no problem hiding himself in the shadows, in fact, this was one of his most honed skills. And it was one which had particularly helped him more than once in his life. All he did was hide, mostly, in plain sight._

 

_Tonight was no different. He walked on through the streets, slithering through the masses with ease while still managing to keep mostly to the shadows. Each step he took, bringing him closer and closer towards his prize._

 

_The key to finally getting what he deserved._

 

_His revenge._

 

_Passing Maruyama Park he saw his companions, his pawns, in their positions waiting for him to give them their next instructions. Slowly making his way towards them he reveled in the fear he witnessed in most of their eyes. He knew they feared him, that their loyalty was non-present, that the respect they paid him was a result of absolute terror to what he could do to them. And he loved it. Just standing there and smirking at each one of them he fed off their energy of fear. It irritated him slightly when after having looked into most eyes; he encountered one pair not looking at him with fear, but pure contempt. Scowling back at the foolish demoness who made no secret of her hatred towards him he wondered when he would finally manage to break her spirit as he had done to so many others before her. It mattered not though. As rebellious as she was, she knew better than to disobey him. Ever. At least if she valued her life and he knew there was nothing she valued more. Not to forget she could not betray him as he had her completely under control. Smirking once more at the thought he gave them further instructions to disengage the security cameras and not let anyone get in the way of him. They were to kill anyone who tried; if not, there would be severe punishment._

 

_Giving them the signal to proceed, they marched in the shadows, moving almost soundlessly through the trees towards their final destination. He noticed that some of the lesser demons of his crew were falling behind and he had to growl at the thought. He cursed under his breath. If it weren’t the moonless night, he would have no use for these lesser beings, though he could only perform this mission tonight therefor this somewhat unnecessary baggage was required. It mattered not much, they would not see the dawn of the next morning as it was._

 

_Finally reaching their target, he gave his rebellious pawn the signal to attack. The demoness, taking out her fan commenced her famous attack. Waving her fan in the direction of the guards she yelled out: “Fujin no Mai”_

 

_Within seconds the guards fell to the ground, their bodies completely slashed through her blades of wind. They proceeded to walk through the gates where as soon as they stepped into the premises of the Nomura Residence, the alarm siren went off._

 

_Waiting for the onslaught of guards to come in order to defend the possessions within the building, he imagined once more, how it would possibly feel to finally hold the key in his hands._

 

_As soon as the sounds of a multitude of steps echoed through the halls, the sinister half-demon merely glanced at his companions and let out a maniacal laugh._

 

_The guards were coming._

 

_Not one of them would survive._

 

_Nothing else would stand in his way._

 

_His time had finally come._

* * *

 

 

_Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep_

 

“Stupid alarm clock just had to wake me up” Kagome groggily said while slamming her hand repeatedly on the magic button to turn off the annoying beeping sound. After delivering the fifteenth hit without effect, the teenager contemplated on simply throwing said devil’s device against the opposite wall in order for the noise to stop, but decided that ruining the tenth alarm-clock in the span of two months was not necessarily a personal record she intended to break.

 

Stumbling out of bed the 18-year-old went to the bathroom to go about her daily routine to get ready for another day at Shikon-high. After brushing her teeth and finally feeling somewhat awake due to having an unexpected ice-cold shower, ’ _Note to self; Check the water boiler’,_ Kagome decided to inspect her body for any new wounds she may have obtained during her last mission.

 

‘ _Man, yesterday’s buffoons may have been as dumb as a piece of toast, but they sure knew how to punch a girl’_ she thought to herself discovering two smaller bruises, all a very dark shade of purple which resembled black more than it did purple, next to a relatively large one on her inner left arm. ‘ _These ones look mean as hell….and damn do they hurt! Well good thing no one is going to see them anyway’._

 

Walking out of the bathroom into her own room, she dressed in her school uniform consisting of a white-green sailor blouse, red scarf and a green skirt she was convinced was almost too short to be deemed appropriate. Finally brushing her thick, beautiful, long black hair into a very “librarian-esque” bun her transformation into a little wallflower was almost complete.

 

Taking one look at the clock hanging on the wall Kagome knew it was time to leave to go to the place she considered her personal “hell-hole” –School. While working as one of the top agents of Kōanchōsa-chō has its perks –a large paycheck, constantly being on dangerous, yet adventurous missions and exotic locations, not to mention free dental care just to name a few– she still needed to go through the regular school education, if nothing else than to keep up appearances.

 

Stepping out of the Shrine she’s lived in since the death of her parents, Kagome made her way down the steps already seeing Sango waiting for her.

 

“Kagome! Hurry up, or we’ll be late!”

 

“Well hello Sango, good morning to you too! It’s always great to be greeted with so much enthusiasm first thing in the morning.”

 

The brunette merely walked on, smirked and responded “Oh come on Kags, I know it’s hard getting out of bed like us normal mortals who don’t get to kick butt all the time, but that doesn’t mean Yura-sama will let us off any easier if we’re late, even less so on the first day of school…so if you think about it, I was only helping you make sure you don’t get your hair get ripped off!”

 

Kagome catching up with her freakishly fast best friend, looked her in the eye. “Of course you did, I truly felt the love….” she answered, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

 

The two best friends looked at each other and burst out in laughter. Walking the streets they knew so well from having walked them the painful days between weekends and holidays to and from school they spoke of their holidays. Sango had flown out to Hokkaido, her family’s original hometown, with her grandparents and her little brother, Kohaku, to keep practicing the family tradition, demon slaying –without the actual demon slaying part. While it was once a widely spread practice, it has been forbidden to actually slay demons since the 19th century when demons and humans have, generally speaking, started living in together in peace. Nowadays demon slayers mainly trained out of a sense of tradition, or to occasionally perform stunts and staged fights in shows. Before their death, Sango’s parents even competed in the Japanese championships and managed to win 3 repeating years, a feat no clan had ever managed to achieve before.

 

While reporting on her advancement with her family’s traditional weapons, swords and large boomerangs, she noted Kagome searching around in her enormous yellow backpack and finally fishing out pair of very thick-framed, black glasses. She watched her friend putting them over her chocolate brown eyes knowing it was only for show. Kagome had proven more than once that her eye sight was actually perfect.

 

“So I take it you’re still going for the whole wallflower-meets-know-it-all-nerd-charm?” Sango asked raising one eyebrow. Sango couldn’t understand why Kagome kept insisting on it.

 

Kagome merely sighed “Sango, we’ve been through this…I’m not going to change this attire. And before you say anything, yes I’m aware I could actually be somewhat popular if I adapted more to our high school status quo, but to be honest Sango, I don’t actually mind being the most unpopular kid. I genuinely don’t care that people think I’m a mute know it all who dresses in the dark and probably couldn’t dress up if my life depended on it. Which, by the way, is a pretty ridiculous notion! I mean when could dressing up actually save your life?”

 

Kagome chuckled a little and continued “Seriously Sango, I don’t need many friends, especially of the superficial kind. I have you as a friend, my best friend, and I can honestly say that I don’t need more!”

 

Sango was about to interject. She knew fully well what Kagome’s initial reasoning was. She has known about Kagome’s more difficult past and her current job situation, and she was well aware of the strains it was putting her friend through.

 

High School was difficult enough as it is; Sango couldn’t even imagine how hard it must be to juggle that with being an agent, always being on the lookout, risking her life day by day and only being able to hope for some peace and quiet.

 

Sango knew Kagome avoided to get too close to anyone –not because she was an anti-social person (anyone who knew Kagome better would know that “anti-social” and “Kagome” do not fit in the same paragraph, let alone the same sentence!), but out of protection.

 

Whether her own, or other people’s protection is up for debate.

 

_‘Though as this is Kagome we are talking about, it’s most probably the latter.’_

 

Meanwhile, Kagome was immersed in her own thoughts. Quietly looking sideways to observe her friend a certain thought popped into her mind that recently have been popping up more often. ‘ _How come Sango puts up with me?’_

 

Kagome was under no illusion that she was somehow ”un-friendable” or in any other way “unworthy” of having friends, yet she sometimes wondered why her best friend with the brown hair in the high ponytail would put up with the hassle –“ _How sad is it that I think that being friends with me is actually a hassle?”_ –of being her friend. Unlike Kagome, Sango was actually relatively popular. While the so called “popular crowed” liked her quite a bit, Sango chose not to associate herself with the jocks and cheerleaders.

 

“They’re all way too intense in anything regarding sports, protein shakes, make up and who kissed or hooked up with who” Sango once scoffed after Kagome asked her why she chose to hang out with her and be pulled down on the intangible yet omnipresent high school hierarchy.

 

Shaking her head to rid herself of these thoughts, Kagome once again turned to her best friend “So how’s Kohaku been doing? Is he excited to be entering middle school this year?”

 

At this question Sango stilled slightly and turned her head down. “He’s not doing so well…been fevering up and murmuring strange things again. It got so bad last night, he’ll actually miss school today. Again.” Kagome merely looked on at her friend. Unfortunately this was not an unusual occurrence. Ever since she met Sango, her little brother was more often sick than healthy; fevering up, having a cough, stomach problems or other strange and seemingly random symptoms. Sango’s grandparents, as Sango herself, have taken Kohaku to various doctors trying to determine what exactly was wrong with her baby brother, but to no avail.

 

Knowing how much the state of not knowing what was wrong with her brother bothered Sango, Kagome decided to change the topic. Mustering up a smile she uttered: “I hope that we have classes together this year… I don’t think I could handle an other semester with Mukotsu-sama by myself”

Sango, thankful for the change of topic, merely rolled her eyes “Definitely! I still don’t understand how they could actually hire that stinky slimeball of a man…can you imagine him teaching Sex-Ed?”

 

Kagome shuddered in response. The horror was simply too great to imagine.

 

Reaching the school building they entered it, many students greeting Sango while merely nodding towards Kagome in polite acknowledgement instead of genuine interest. The duo merely went on towards the principal’s office where, just as always, a stand was set up where students picked up their schedules and locker numbers for this year. After grabbing their schedules and comparing them the two girls joyously high-fived each other.

 

They were in all the same classes.

 

Sango twirled a little out of happiness “Wow, I hadn’t actually expected that they’d actually put us together in all classes. I was hoping for maybe 2 or 3, though knowing my luck I was kinda counting on us not being together in any class at all! This is awesome, absolutely awesome! Nothing could possibly ruin this right now!”

 

_Smack_ “HENTAI!”

 

The two girls turned towards the slapping sound and, as expected, saw a furiously blushing girl walking towards them, while a boy with his hair put in a low pony tail kneeled on the ground, his hands still extended in mid-air and on his face an expression of mock disappointment. As soon as said boy lifted his head and realized the girls were there, his expression changed from crest-fallen to absolute joy. He stood up, taking long fast strides in their direction.

 

Sango’s eyes widened in horror _. ‘Oh boy, it’s too early! He’s not actually going to –’_ Before she could finish her thought, he kneeled in front of the tajiya and once more asked the question which had gotten him into a lot of trouble in the years before. “Ah my dear Sango, this has been a long summer. It is truly wonderful to see your beauty again”, grabbing her hands he then continued “You really grow more beautiful each passing day. I must ask you whether you would give me the honor of bearing my child?”

 

While her friend stood, still mortified by the brash proposal, Kagome passed her a sly look and smirking asked “You were saying?”

 

Sango quickly regaining her senses shook off the lecher’s hands –all the while hoping no one noticed her slight blush –and, just like the girl before her, slapped him right in the face.

 

“Ugh you never give up, do you?”

 

Just as Kagome was about to tease her best friend, a deep male voice interrupted her.

 

“Sheesh Miroku, have the various goose eggs sprouting on your head taught you nothing?”

 

Kagome tensed up, not quite believing her bad luck of running into that particular person _‘though, if I think about it, this day did seem to be going too good to be true’_

 

“Ah Inuyasha, my friend! You know very well that I simply cannot help myself when it comes to beautiful women!” Miroku smirkingly answered his best friend.

 

Precisely the person Kagome was trying to avoid.

 

Inuyasha. The silver-haired, amber eyed, dog eared jerk of a hanyou who happens to be the most popular guy in school –how _that_ ever happened remains one of the many mysteries of the world to her– and one of the few people to actually talk to Kagome.

 

Even if the talking consists of constant jabs. And teasing. And fighting.

 

Mainly fighting really.

 

In response the hanyou merely looked at Kagome and smugly stated “Well it’s good to know the many blows to the head haven’t made you lose your mind completely…at least you didn’t stoop so low as the ask the ugly-duckling-queen-of-the-nerds right here”

 

“Why Inuyasha I missed you too. It’s especially calming to know that the summer holidays don’t seem to have killed off that many more of your brain cells. I don’t think you could really afford losing any more!” Kagome answered with the sweetest fake smile she could muster, making sure her voice was dripping with sarcasm.

 

Inuyasha opened his mouth to give another rebuttal, but before he could two arms wrapped themselves around his arms. He looked down, only to see his girlfriend, Kikyou, clinging to his arm possessively, pressing his arm tightly into her Ōendan uniform and a cold, hard gaze on Kagome.

 

“Inuyasha is that nerd bothering you?”

 

The hanyou in question took in the way his girlfriend kept stroking his arm in a not-so-subtle display of possession…and was deeply puzzled by it. For some time now he had been under the impression that Kikyou had been pulling away from him; more often being too busy to meet up outside of school, avoiding touching him…Seems like he had been mistaken.

 

Not that he was complaining.

 

“Uhm…nah don’t worry babe, we were just…talking, right four-eyes?” he answered, smirking at Kagome in the process.

 

She merely glared back in response.

 

Kikyou purposefully moved her hand from Inuyasha’s arm to his face, pulling it to face her –after all, he was supposed to pay attention to her, his girlfriend, not be distracted by some girl with thick glasses. Pulling her long charcoal hair back she once again glanced in Kagome’s direction.

 

“Inu, you shouldn’t let the little nerd forget her place.”

 

Turning her attention back to Inuyasha, Kikyou once more started stroking his jaw-line. Looking up to him through her eyelashes and putting on her most seductive smirk –something Kagome was afraid, she would never be able to unsee again –Kikyou let out a breathy “Well I need to get to Hishimoto’s class. So I’ll see you later baby? Then we can continue where we left off yesterday…”, giggling at the end.

 

Now Inuyasha was utterly confused. They hadn’t even seen each other yesterday. They had talked on the phone. For less than fifteen minutes. _‘What’s been up with her these days? Yesterday she couldn’t wait to get me off the phone and today she’s being all nice and –´_

 

Before he could finish the thought, Kikyou pulled him into a deep kiss, smashing their lips together in the process, another unusual thing in her behavior.

 

Again, he wasn’t complaining.

 

Miroku looked just as confused as Inuyasha felt. He had been hoping that the “dream-couple” as most of the school liked to refer to them to –it was obvious the rest of the school had never seen the couple outside the building; “dreamy” was not the adjective Miroku would use to describe them –would finally realize that they were not meant for one another.

 

The awkwardness had been going on for far too long.

 

But alas, no one ever asked for his opinion.

 

Sango and Kagome meanwhile, were rooted on the spot: while Sango was already thinking of how she would most likely need years of therapy to get rid of the images before her, Kagome couldn’t help but think that the kiss looked surprisingly…strange.

 

She couldn’t put her finger on it –not that she cared, of course –but there was something off about it. _‘As much as I hate the jerk…even he looked weirdened out about the assault on his face. Before he started thinking with his only functioning head again at least.’_

 

Sango was first to come out of her stupor.

 

“Come on Kags, we need to get to Yura-sama’s class.”

 

At this Miroku perked up immediately.

 

“Yeah, let’s leave the lovebirds alone before they decide to mate right here on the school corridor!” the shorter teen answered.

 

Kikyou interrupted her ministrations on Inuyasha’s face for a moment to challengingly look at Kagome. Raising an eyebrow she addressed Kagome and uttered a mere “Jealous?”

 

”Nah. I’m not really into the whole exhibitionist-scene. Also I don’t go for idiots. That seems to be more your kind of thing!” Kagome countered.

 

Seeking to alleviate the situation, and seeing a chance to not only spend more precious minutes with the lovely Sango and of course fleeing the corridor before it turned into an utter war-zone, Miroku cheerfully stated “I’ll join you girls, we seem to be headed towards the same destination anyway!”

 

Sango, who had already started walking towards the classroom stopped short, abruptly turned around and fixed Miroku with a glare radiating a perfect mixture of fury and disbelief.

 

“What?”

 

“Well my dear Sango, we seem to be heading the same way, so I thought we may assist each other on the long journey to biology…not to mention get away from here before we become witnesses to physical harm…” Miroku answered already heading toward Sango.

 

Kagome, sensing the tension between her best friend and the boy-her-best-friend-won’t-admit-she-has-the-hots-for, briskly walked towards Sango, though before she could reach her, Sango lifted the arm holding her now scrunched up time table.

 

“If you lecher come any closer, you won’t merely be a witness to physical harm” she threatened, readying her hand to strike for emphasis.

 

Miroku faltered for a second, contemplating whether she would actually go through with the threat or not. ‘ _Sango dearest sure seems mad….she has no idea how sexy she looks when she gets like that’._ Deciding against listening to his common sense, Miroku gradually went on in his pursuit of the tajiya. Sango immediately reacted by striking him, aiming for his face, though Miroku, surprising everyone by not only evading her his, moving with speed no one would have given him credit for, but also being able to land a fatal blow to Sango’s ego –he managed to tickle her.

 

Sango immediately stiffening upon feeling the tickling sensation over her shirt, never noticed Miroku’s hand quickly retreating, aiming for the scrunched up paper instead. He accomplished to grab said paper out of the brunette’s hand and leaped backwards out of reach for the hit he was sure would follow.

 

Finally stopping when he reached, what he seemed to be a safe distance away from the now livid tajiya (hiding behind his inu-hanyou best friend, separating the couple from their embrace in the process), Miroku straightened the paper, studying it with much care.

 

Sango, who at this point was not only livid, but also very embarrassed about being caught off-guard by the lecher was giving off an aura of pure killing intent. Not really caring who got in her way of hitting the lecher into his next life and perhaps even the life after that, she went for the kill only stopping when she felt her best friend’s arm worming itself around her midriff, impeding her to go on.

 

“Sango he’s not worth getting into trouble, come on you can always kill him when we are off of school property…” Kagome half- teasingly soothed Sango, while keeping a firm hold on the brunette.

 

The quick reaction of the perceived nerd did not go unnoticed by Inuyasha and Kikyou. While the cheerleader regarded Kagome’s reaction dismissively, despite feeling a little uneasy by the swift, graceful reaction, Inuyasha was intrigued. He had fought Sango before in some sessions of Martial arts during P.E lessons and knew exactly how impressively strong she was –not that he would ever admit it openly. For Kagome to hold her _back_ with little to no effort, the girl must have some serious strength herself.

 

‘ _Seems like I’m going to have to keep an eye on four-eyes.’_

 

Miroku had been completely oblivious to what had just transpired, having been engrossed with his recent findings (though in the back of his mind, he was ecstatic of not having to worry about healing a possible concussion).

 

“Ah my darling Sango! It seems we will be seeing a lot of each other this year…”

 

At this everyone’s attention shifted to the pony-tailed boy. For a quick moment Kagome took note on how Kikyou and Inuyasha were staring at Miroku with different expressions…with at least 2 arm lengths separating them. The girl quickly focused her attention back on Miroku, slightly annoyed by the fact that not only had she noticed the distance between the jackass and the cheerleader, but she also caught herself wondering why Kikyou had yet to move next to her boyfriend again.

 

‘ _Why the hell did I notice that anyway_?’

 

Dreading she already knew the answer Sango, suddenly looking a lot paler than just a second ago, hesitantly asked “…Why?”

 

Inuyasha, not liking the way his friend was grinning from ear to ear tried to figure out what exactly was putting it on his face.

 

Kagome, having a suspicion on where this was getting to, widened her eyes, a constant ‘Oh no, oh, no oh, nonononono!’ repeating in her mind like a mantra.

 

Inuyasha as if reading her thoughts let out a long sigh. “Don’t tell me that-“

 

“Yes!” Miroku joyously interrupted. “We will be together in all the same classes!”

 

Silence fell over the group. The only sound that could be heard, was the slight chatter of the forgotten squad of cheerleader which had accompanied Kikyou.

 

Kikyou picked up on various “Oh my God!”, “Can you imagine?” and “Poor Kikyou, she doesn’t have a single class with her boy, yet the mousy four-eyes gets to spend soooo much time with him”.

 

_‘Ugh. It doesn’t really bother me, but I guess I should react somehow…’_

 

Putting on her best outraged facial expression and pout Kikyou started sprouting whatever first came into her mind.

 

“WHAT?!?! Baby that’s not fair! How come that, that, NERD gets to see you all the time?”

 

Ignoring the openly surprised expression of her boyfriend, she rounded up on Kagome and continued “I will not forget this! You can be sure little nerd that I will be keeping an eye of you!”

 

Kikyou then turned around; taking in the satisfied expressions on her cheerleader-friend’s faces she was quite pleased with her performance. She then proceeded to walk towards her next class, stomping every once in a while to add a little to her “anger”, while her followers tread on her heels. The head cheerleader needed to get to her class fast. The little stint had been unplanned and she needed to be in class on time.

 

_‘Wouldn’t want to break my attendance record, after all’_

 

Kagome merely stood on and thought to herself: _‘Great. Just, great. I’m stuck in all the same classes as the bastard, arrogant son of a dog for the entire year, I won’t be able to escape him in any way, my best friend will be flirted to –or as she would say “sexually harassed” –by said bastard’s best friend and the bastard’s girlfriend has decided to make me her new arch nemesis for it…could this possibly get any worse?’_

 

And that’s when Kagome remembered.

 

The day had only just started.


	2. The Spider

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the extremely late update: between an illness, literally life changing well changes and my laptop deciding to abandon me and deleting every last file it has taken me a while to set up shop again...
> 
> I believe this is quite obvious but the “police record” included in this chapter, as well as any information regarding incident, date time, place witnesses etc. included, are purely fictional.  
> Also Kirara is a “humanoid” demon in this fic. 
> 
> WARNING: Graphic violence and mentions of torture described in this chapter. Read at your own risk. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any other Characters used in this fanfiction. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi. I also do not own Hello Kitty. The plot and the mistakes alone belong to me.

 

It was a good day. 

 

Myoga was sitting in his office, going through Kagome’s latest report. His favorite agent and adoptive daughter had once again out-done herself, infiltrating the target’s base, incapacitating the enemy’s henchmen while remaining undetected and basically unscathed, as well as completing the mission within less time than had originally been planned. 

He contently –and with an enormous sense of pride towards his adopted daughter –sipped from his mug of fresh coffee his secretary, Kirara, had brought him, once more secretly thanking whomever was listening for the life giving, slightly bitter, black drink. She had even thought about putting in a couple of drops of her own blood to accommodate his diet. 

 

That girl definitely deserved a raise. 

 

It was in this precise moment that his door was slammed open with such force, it not only hit the wall but bounced right back, though the intruder seemed to take no notice of it, proceeding to sprint towards the flea’s desk.  

Skidding to a halt in front of his desk the young man –merely a boy in the flea’s eyes –placed his hands on his knees, panting and trying to regain his breath. The boy had not bothered to introduce himself, but by his scent the demon identified the intruder as one of the director’s trainees.  

The trainee stretched out one of his arms, a brown manila folder clutched tightly in his hand. Looking up to face the flea demon the boy wheezed out “The. Director. Wanted. You. To. Have. This”, each word being followed by another pant.  

Myoga took the manila folder, opening it and silently gesturing the trainee to sit down in the chair across his desk. The boy shot him a look of pure gratitude and did as gestured. 

Reading through the first lines of the file Myoga grew increasingly confused. From what he was reading this case was not at all related to anything his department did.  

“Boy, are you sure you brought this to the right person? This file here describes the theft several artifacts…” Myoga drifted off hoping the boy before him caught on to what was left unsaid. 

The trainee, now no longer panting, looked up to the department chief uncertainty shining in his eyes. He visibly gulped and after clearing his throat answered “W-well Sir, since you are currently without a case to be worked on, the director deemed it fit I brought this to you” 

“Still I fail to understand why the director would ask you to bother me with this. While some of the artifacts stolen were very valuable, art recovery is not exactly what we are trained to do in this department. In fact, this case hardly appears to qualify as being part of our jurisdiction at all. It certainly doesn’t seem like anything the local police shouldn’t be able to handle by themselves.”  

The trainee, looking even more nervous than before, hesitantly started “W-Well Sir… To-Totosai-sama asked me to specifically show this to you. He said, and I quote: ‘Let the old flea decide what to do about this. Make sure he gets the file though’” gaining more confidence with every word. 

At these words Myoga looked up and frowned. ‘ _Strange. The director must have had a good reason to send this file to me…the only question is…Why?’_  He once again opened the file reading through the details more carefully this time. 

 

 

 _Case Number: 010247865_  

 _Date:_ _7_ _th_ _January_ _201_ _4_  

 _Reporting Officer:_ _Keibu_ _-Ho_ _Yamamoto_  

 _Prepared by:_ _Junsa_ _Ono_  

 _Incident Type:_ _Armed Robbery and Homicide_  

 _Address of Occurrence:_ _Nomura Residence,_ _Kyoto, Japan_  

 _Witnesses:_  

 _Ishid_ _a_ _Ayumi_ _, Employee –Maintenance Services,_ _Female, 43, Demo_ _n_  

 _Nakayama_ _Hiroshi, Employee –Security Personnel, Male, 30, Human_  

 _Fujimoto_ _Eiji_ _, Employee –Head of Security_ _Personnel_ _, Male_ _, 55, Human_  

 _Nomura_ _Kishimoto_ _, Owner, Male, 62, Human_  

 _Evidence:_  

 _Bloodied White Fur coat_  

 _Bloodied Katana_ _s_  

 _Severed body parts_  

 _Surveillance Footage_ _of Security Camera_ _28_ _of the Compound_  

 _Weapon/Object Used:_ _Katanas, Hammers, Satchel_  

 _On_ _6_ _th_ _January_ _2014_ _, at approximately 22:17,_ _various unknown subjects, bo_ _th humans and demons_ _, entered the_ _Nomura_ _compound_ _and_ _stole various artisan objects including_ _2 swords from the_ _Musashi_ _period,_ _several scrolls, paintings, a shell_ _ointment, an ancient baboon mask_ _and a pink marble. While the other security cameras of the compound had been disabled, security camera 28_ _partly_ _recorded the incident_ _. While audio_ _of the entire incident_ _was available_ _, the_ _visual recordings of the event were only partial._  

 _Camera 28 recorded the sounds of the intruder_ _’_ _s yells when entering the compound and the first wave of security guards arrived at the point of intrusion. Sounds of battle were recorded while_ _blood splattered on the wall. After minutes more guards arrived at the scene, including Nakayama who in his witness statement stated that “All hell broke loose._ _There was blood everywhere; the damn demons started attacking immediately.”_ _Fujimoto arrived at the scene short_ _ly_ _after the initial attack, having caught sight of the attack_ _ers_ _before being hit into unconsciousness. He_ _described some of the assailants:_ _”_ _most of them didn’t even bother covering up. They just showed their faces…_ _there were a couple which looked almost human._ _”_

 

 

Myoga sighed. This was more than just a regular theft and art recovery case. People had been injured –and by the witness’ description on the astounding amount of blood it is safe to assume that they had died.  

While homicide was never a pretty business –unfortunately more often than not in the literal sense –Myoga was still unsure as to why exactly he should be on this case. Until now at least, the police report did not indicate that external help would be needed, especially not from his department. Criminal Profiling maybe –those men and women do wonders when it comes to understanding criminal minds –but his special forces? Unlikely. 

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts he continued reading. 

 

 

 _Nakayama stated that_ _the last thing he remembered before also falling unconscious was that_ _“there was one guy…he seemed_ _kinda_ _calm, in a white fur coat; he grabbed a mask and covered his face with it_ _”._ _Nakayama had been fighting with the first onslaught of security guards when Fujimoto reached the main entrance of the Nomura es_ _tat_ _e._ _Before he could call for back-up he received a blow on the head._  

 _After obtaining the desired objects from the gallery and_ _severely_ _injuring or killing the security personnel, one of the suspect went up to the back wall of the gallery and painted a symbol_ _on it. See attached photo._    

 _Keibu_ _-Ho Yamamoto, as well as back-up, arrived_ _at the scene at approximately 00_ _:50 in response to the 110 call of_ _Ishida_ _Ayumi_ _. Arriving at the scene,_ _Keibu_ _-Ho Yamamoto_ _reviewed the security footage, as well as the list of inventory that Nomura_ _Kishimoto_ _provided him with._ _Numerous fingerprints were pulled from the crime scene and sent to the forensics lab for analysis._ _The victims were sent to the coroner’s office for an autopsy._ _Closer inspection of the symbol revealed that it had been drawn with blood, presumably from the victims._  

 

 

Alarm bells started ringing in Myoga’s head. The flea demon couldn’t shake off the feeling of dreaded familiarity that had crept in his gut. He sincerely hoped that his suspicions would prove to be unfounded, for if he turned out to be correct, the situation would be far graver than he dared to fathom. 

‘ _It’s never good when un-subs consciously leave something behind; especially when this something is a message written in blood’_ he thought to himself. Taking a deep breath to gather his thoughts and not let them stray back to distant memories he had tried to bury many years ago. Slowly turning towards the filed pictures he looked through them, already dreading what he would see. 

The scenes depicted were truly atrocious. The pictures ranged from the numerous dead victims – _30 in total;_ _bludgeoned, eviscerated, throats cut open,_ _limbs flailing at un-natural angles, partly dissolving,_ _gaping holes in their bodies that should not be there,_ _lying in their own pool of blood, often their eyes still opened wide in horror, yet completely unseeing_  –to the two live ones in hospital – _pale, bruised,_ _faces swollen_ _partly beyond recognition_  –to the actual crime scene pictures –empty shelves, empty pedestals, smashed glass everywhere, various objects littered on the floor and most of all blood, so much blood. 

 

The single picture that caused his blood freeze though, was the picture of the wall the camera was mounted on. 

 

It depicted a spider, drawn up with blood, some of the spider’s legs still in the process of dripping. 

 

Keito, who by now was far from panting, contently sipping the water Myoga-sama had offered him, silently observed as his boss’ and idol’s expressions change from intrigue to sadness to slight disgust before it finally settled into a blank one.  

After reaching the end of the manila folder, Myoga sharply faced his trainee, his composure completely changed from the exasperated, if not slightly annoyed and amused to the dead serious, no-funny-business demeanor he had now. 

“How many others have seen this?” 

The trainee tersely answered “Just the director, himself, Sir,” hoping beyond hope that he sounded a lot surer than he felt at the moment. The tense reaction from the usually laid back supervisory agent disturbed him more than he would like to admit. 

The flea demon measured the trainee with his gaze, before giving his sharp reply. “Good. Tell Totosai we will take on the case. I will be reporting to him directly. No other team is to touch this. DO NOT speak of it to anyone but him, understood?” 

Straightening the trainee firmly answered “Yes Sir!”, turning around and exiting the office to pass on the message to his superior, all the while wondering just WHAT on EARTH was in that file. 

As soon as the door of his office had closed, Myoga walked to his phone, sighing deeply as he pressed the button connecting him to his personal secretary. 

Immediately he heard his office door open another time, the distinct scent of the cat-demoness wafting up his nose. Looking up Myoga couldn’t help the small smile on his lips. His secretary walked in with a brilliant smile on her pale face, her blonde hair with dark tips swaying with each step she took, the cat ears on top of her head swiveling in different directions at any little sound. She was donning a baby blue sundress with a large white belt on her waist and a white flower clip in her hair.  

 

She has also decided to bring in her pink glittery pen and what seemed to be a unicorn and Hello Kitty notepad. 

 

Her red eyes directed at him she politely asked “Yes, Myoga-sama?” 

The smile quickly left his face, his eyes hardening as soon as he remembered the reason for calling her into his office in the first place. Letting out a drawn out breath Myoga leant back against his desk. 

“Kirara! I need you to get me anything we have on the spider case!” 

Kirara paused, the hand holding her pink glittery pen to take notes faltering on the notepad. Quietly meeting her boss’ gaze she managed to force out a tentative “Sir…? What happened? You personally sealed away these files many years ago. Why would you want them now?” 

The flea demon closed his eyes, once more letting out a long breath. He sincerely hoped he looked a lot calmer than he felt and that Kirara would not notice the slight shaking of his arms. 

 

She did notice.  

 

She also knew better than to mention anything…especially because Kirara hadn’t seen her boss so tense since the time he started training Kagome. 

Once more meeting his secretary’s eyes he gravely forced out the words he had hoped would never have to leave his mouth. 

 

“He’s back.” 

 

Myoga watched the demoness drop the notepad and pen she had brought with her on the floor and cover her mouth with both of her hands, gasping with wide eyes out of shock.  

For a millisecond he allowed himself to feel a twinge of amusement. It was not often Kirara was shocked into losing her composure completely. Yet he couldn’t blame her. The man in question was anything but a regular criminal and him being back could not possibly be considered any good. 

Quickly setting his head back to what had to be done he ordered “Assemble everything we have: written files, video files, audio tapes, any record what so ever! Make sure that that technical analyst you like so much, that Shippo fella, works on it too. I don’t care what else he’s working on, he’s going to have to drop it and solely concentrate on this…I’m going to need the best of the best for this particular case”  

Kirara blushed slightly at the mention of the kitsune analyst, yet immediately turned around, picking up the notepad and pen she had previously dropped, before mentally going through a list of anything they may have, and who she’d need to contact in the archives to get access to everything her boss had asked of her. 

As soon as the door was shut Myoga sat down at his desk again, going through the file brought to him by the director another time. He knew it would only be one of many, many times he would be reading through this particular file. 

Sighing deeply for the seemingly umpteenth time that day, he realized he now had a lot of thinking to do. The mug of coffee he had been looking forward to remains cold and completely forgotten atop his office desk. 

 

His day has just gotten a lot more complicated. 

 

* * *

 

 

Inuyasha, meanwhile, was at a loss.  

He had always considered himself a reasonably good person. Sure, he could be very impatient, his temper –or lack thereof –will probably be the stuff of legends one day and he could be a bit of an ass sometimes –or most of the time for that matter…but hey, he’s a half demon! It’s practically in his nature to be a BAMF.   

His ravishing good looks helped him get away with a lot, of course. 

So ok, he was no saint –but he sure as hell wasn’t as bad as some demons, or humans for that matter, were. Especially not the ones he got to kick the asses of on a regular basis.  

‘ _So why do the Kami hate me? What have I ever done to deserve this?’_  

After the more than ridiculous “showdown” that happened the day before in the hall –no thanks to Miroku there! (‘ _Had the bastard just kept to himself_ _…_ ’ )–it seemed the fates had not taken lightly on him. 

While it was bad enough that he would be sharing the same classes as the geek and not a single one with his girlfriend –though he chose not to analyze any further why exactly the  _latter_  aspect didn’t seem to bother him as much as it should –Miroku kept going on and on about how much his “lovely Sango” has changed over the summer ( _‘_ _Feh_ _! S_ _he hasn’t really—_ _Miroku_ _just needs an excuse to keep mentioning her_ ’) and to top it off, Inuyasha due to inexplicable reasons actually got seated in the immediate vicinity of Kagome and Sango in all of his classes so far. 

(He also conveniently forgets that he usually chooses to sit in a position in which he could casually observe her if the teacher got too boring –which happened to be quite often. The perfect moment of teasing the nerd doesn’t find itself.) 

Up until now they had been able to avoid any major communication with each other. There was, of course, the occasional jab, (mostly from his part), a lot or eye-rolling (mostly from Kagome’s part) and a lot of threats regarding bodily harm (from Sango; always directed towards his hopeless best friend) but the positively most annoying part of the constant contact was, without a doubt, the attention they received from the rest of the student body. 

Inuyasha was used to people staring at him. The ears on top of his head –“puppy ears” like four eyes likes to remind him –are highly unusual, even for demon standards. 

 

Him being the resident BAMF the girls liked to try to “convert” and his pretty impressive guns may contribute to the staring too. 

 

The random approaches of girls –judging by the clothes they were some of his girlfriend’s followers –“defending Kikyou’s honor” by reminding him that he was lucky to have her and shouldn’t give in to  “the uber-nerd’s tricks to make him fall for her instead” and the excessive death glares directed at Kagome were new though. 

The half demon trudged along the hall, no longer pretending to listen to what his best friend had to say –“Ah the lovely Sango looked more radiant than ever. Have you seen the way she blushed when I asked her to bear my children? Do you think she may actually consider it?” –and instead, focused his attention on finding his way to the chemistry lab. 

Even though he managed to effectively drone out his best friend’s voice, unfortunately his ears couldn’t help but pick up snippets of the conversations going on around him.  

 

“ _Hey man, did you get the answers for math?”_  

 _“-wizards. This was seriously the best!”_  

 _“Oh my God! It’s him!_ _It’s really him! It’s_ _Inuyasha_ _!_ _”_  

 _“Do you think he could ever go for me?”_  

 _“What’s the big deal about the guy anyway?”_  

 _“That_ _Miroku_ _is SO lucky to get to hang out with him”_  

 _“Do you really think he_ _would leave_ _Kikyou_ _for that weirdo_ _?”_  

 _“Please_ _!_ _D_ _on’t be ridiculous,_ _Kikyou’s_ _smoking hot!”_  

 _“Can you believe her though? Trying to steal another girl’s man? I mean, how desperate is that?”_  

 

He could feel the urge to hit something building up and getting stronger with each comment he heard about himself. 

 

 _‘Do these people seriously have nothing better to talk about than me?’_  

 

A sudden slap to the back of his head snapped him out of his thoughts. Turning towards the offender he was glad to see it had been Miroku. He could always take out his annoyance on him. 

“What the hell monk?” 

“You were thinking about hitting someone again.” 

Inuyasha scowled. Turning away he mumbled “It’s not like they don’t deserve it…” 

Miroku sighed deeply. 

“Inuyasha, we’ve talked about this. You can’t go around fantasizing about hitting people. There is a reason why-”  

“Ah shut it Bouzou! If you had to listen to all the crap that they’re saying you’d be murderous too!” 

Shaking his head, Miroku kept walking towards their destination. 

“And what pray tell  _have_ they been saying that annoys you so greatly?” 

Miroku watched his best friend tense for a split-second, then scowl and grip his backpack a little tighter while grumbling something inaudibly. 

“Yeah, could you repeat that? I’m afraid not all of us have super-sensitive-dog hearing” 

The hanyou rolled his eyes and grumbled “The whole Kikyou –Four eyes –me…” 

“Love-triangle?” Miroku finished, earning him a glare from the silver-eared teen. 

“With the nerd? Please, as if!” 

Miroku hid a smirk and merely lifted an eyebrow. 

“I’m serious! For the past few days every single fucking time at least two girls met up, they would contemplate on the chances of me leaving Kikyou for the nerd, Kikyou beating the nerd and whether they had a chance with me if even the “biggest nerd in the history of nerds” managed to catch my eye. Higurashi would never seriously catch my eye…or try to actively seduce me…or fight Kikyou”  

“Wouldn’t it be entertaining though? Kagome-san and Kikyou-san inside an inflatable pool full of mud –or, you know, chocolate pudding –wearing nothing but bikinis and engaging in an epic wrestling match, the winner being worthy of your affections…” 

Inuyasha snorted, shaking his head. “Ew! Yeah, how about no… I don’t think anyone wants to see our dearest four-eyes in a bikini!” and absentmindedly added “Also, I get the feeling that if those two ever really had to engage in hand-to-hand combat, Kikyou wouldn’t have a chance against her.” 

It took an astounding amount of Miroku’s willpower not to completely stop short at that.  

That was a completely unexpected answer. While his little jab was only meant to tease his best friend a little more for the whole Kagome –Kikyou—situation the whole school seemed so obsessed over…the intensity of the answer was pretty surprising. Miroku was taken aback by his friend’s answer. It seemed that this issue, and the teenage girl herself, were taking up a lot more presence in Inuyasha’s mind than he seemed to be aware of.  

 

 _‘Then again…Kagome_ _has, somehow,_ _always managed to rile him up like no one_ _else_ _. Most of the time she wouldn’_ _t even have to say anything in particular, she would_ _just be present. I always did wonder about that…’_  

 

Deciding against commenting on it though, he said instead: 

“Could you actually arrange that? Because if yes-” 

“Don’t even think about it, Bouzou!” 

“Why do you refuse to indulge me? I thought we were best friends” 

 

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and gave the black haired teen a funny look. 

 

Miroku merely chuckled. 

 

“Oh alright…but look at it positively: there are still some classes left, which we haven’t had yet. So there is still the off-chance you will not have to listen to various theories relating to the both of you.” 

 

Inuyasha perked up at that. Miroku was right, maybe the gods had not forsaken him after all. Maybe for once he wouldn’t have to subject himself to her presence and the endless whispers regarding his scandalous-non-existent-fascination-slash-infidelity with the school’s resident weird girl. There might still be a chance— 

Sure enough, the unmistakable scent of nerd filled his nostrils and he had to ask himself, once again, what he could have possibly done to make the kami hate him so. 

 

Seriously, why had he even bothered with hoping? 

 

Walking into the chemistry lab, the hanyou immediately scanned the room for any free seats. He didn’t even care if they were shitty and he wouldn’t actually be able to read anything Haruko-sensei wrote on the board (that lady had the tendency to write for ants…people in the first and second row were lucky to see what was going on). It wasn’t a big issue; he’d get the information from somewhere else later. While the entire first row was, unsurprisingly, empty, he tried scanning the room further. 

It was better to avoid sitting in the first row; whenever Haruko-sensei wasn’t there, Kishimoto-sama would substitute her. While he was a very good teacher, he was also an insectoid-youkai, looking like a strange almost human-fly-hybrid that was unable to stop himself from spraying the entire first row with his yellowish looking saliva. 

After the so called “Kaori-incident” two years ago (a topic generally avoided by the entire student body), the first row has been consistantly left deserted. 

The only two places he could find apart from the first row though, were the ones next to Kagome and Sango. 

 

Of course they would be. 

 

Judging by the way Miroku’s face lit up like a Christmas tree, he had also noticed.  

Sango and Kagome were sitting in the second row towards the left, Sango having taken the seat which was furthest to the left, right by the window. Inuyasha supposed she had taken this seat to avoid the risk of Miroku sitting directly next to her. 

 

He always had known she was smart. 

 

Miroku, with a true shit-eating grin plastered on his face, started making his way to the empty table next to the two girls. Inuyasha merely sighed and started following his best friend.  

 _‘Man this is really not_ _gonna_ _help_ _with the stupid comments…on_ _the_ _other hand sitting close to the nerd in officially all of my classes is still bound to_ _be better than having to_ _reek of insectoid fluids for over two weeks and remain with a yellow tinge for 2 months’_  

 

The “Kaori-incident” should never ever be repeated again. Especially not with him as its new victim. 

 

 _“Oh No! The lecher has arrived. Please don’t let him sit next to us”_ , the hanyou heard Sango urgently whisper to Kagome. 

He saw Kagome’s lips quirk up slightly before turning to a frown, a quick flash of guilt passing through her eyes. 

“ _Sorry Sango…if this whole mess hadn’t happened, we could have had_ _Ayumi_ _next to us_ ” 

At this comment it was Inuyasha’s turn to falter a little. He hadn’t even noticed that Ayumi was also in this class. Eyes darting around the room once more, seeking out the short-haired girl, he found her, sitting two rows back next to some of Kikyou’s followers.  

 

 _‘Well that’s unusual…’_  

 

Ayumi was friends with Sango. They usually studied together, more often than not including four eyes to their study sessions, and trained together at the dojo for any upcoming competitions. 

 _“Oh please,_ _Kags_ _! If she wants to be silly and distance herself from you because she doesn’t want to get in trouble with_ _Kikyou_ _, so be it. You’ll see, the whole thing will die down soon enough”_  

The hanyou frowned at that. Sure, Higurashi wasn’t his favorite person, far from it actually, but he was shocked how far this whole Kikyou-mess was also affecting her. 

 _‘Are people ser_ _iously actively avoiding her because of that stupid rumor?’_  

 

Miroku reached the table, pulling out the chair that was next to Kagome he spoke: “Ah Sango, my love! It seems fate has brought us together once more! Do you mind if I take my seat here?” 

Kagome quickly looked down towards her notes, biting her lips in order to suppress a smirk waiting to form and taking a sip from her water bottle when she realized that wouldn’t keep it from forming on her face. 

Sango, meanwhile, glared heatedly at Miroku while blushing a slight pink –it was subtle, only detectable to Inuyasha because of her elevated heartbeat his demonic senses managed to pick up. He had to give her that, she was good at hiding her attraction towards the monk. 

 

Miroku  _had_  been unusually supportive during the past couple of days in the whole annoying attention matter, perhaps Inuyasha should mention that, for some inexplicable reason, the girl just might reciprocate his attraction. 

 

“Lovely Sango, your glare cuts me deeply. Perhaps I should redirect my attentions towards someone else. Lady Kagome, would you perhaps give me the honours?” 

 

Then again, maybe not. 

 

Kagome actually choked on her water and Sango’s glare deepened, a vein now visibly twitching on her forehead. The tajiya opened her mouth to answer, but before she could say anything, or Miroku could get himself in even more of a mess than he had already gotten himself into, Inuyasha shoved his best friend to the side, taking his seat and calmly getting his notebook and pens out. 

The three looked at him with various sets of facial expressions: Miroku seemed slightly stupefied, eyes a little lost, but quickly recovered, sitting down next to Inuyasha with a hesitant smile on his face; while Sango and Kagome had interesting looks of various degrees of relief and concern. Sango’s seemed to be a perfect blend of them, Kagome on the other hand, looked slightly more relieved, yet a little skeptical –actually a rather typical expression for the girl—look carved in her face. 

“Bouzou, you should really learn when to stop. One of these days someone’s gonna sue you for sexual harassment.” 

At that Miroku burst into laughter next to him. “Inuyasha I do appreciate your concern, but the lady Sango surely knows that my affections truly only belong to her. Also a little harmless flirting never harmed anybody. Surely this does not classify as sexual harassment.” 

“Actually yes it does” Sango, Kagome and Inuyasha answered in unison.  

Miroku blinked twice, bursting into another round of laughter. 

“Look at you, bonding and everything! Never thought I’d see the day to be honest.” 

Inuyasha and Kagome gave a short scoff, preparing to give a retort when- 

 

 _“Oh by the Kami; can you believe it? He chose to sit next to four eyes AGAIN!”_  

 

Crap. He had forgotten about that. 

 

Inuyasha quickly glanced backwards towards where the shocked whisper had come from. In the row right behind them Asuka, a particularly annoying follower of the Kikyou-Fan-club – _yes_  that really was a thing, and  _no_  he was not part of it –was sitting behind them, poking other people and shamelessly pointing in his direction.  

 

 _‘_ _So much for this whole thing not getting blown out of proportion even more._ _’_  

 

 _“Sheesh, what IS it with this nerd that draws him in anyway?”_  

 _“I know right?_ _Kikyou_ _is so much prettier!”_  

 _“What a homewrecker!”_  

 

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Kagome’s jaw tense for a split second. He was certain she had heard the comments –not a particularly hard thing to do, seeing as they weren’t really trying to hide them. 

(He could also see that Sango had clearly heard them: the girl was practically fuming and he was certain, that in this state – _he liked to_ _cal_ _l it the protective mama-bear_  –not even the most formidable youkai would be able to defeat her)  

In the face of having no idea how to react, he did the one thing that any sane individual in his situation would do. 

 

He ignored them. 

 

“Feh! As if four eyes and I ever had anything to bond about…I tend not to care about the newest collection of nerd glasses or how to reek of boredom, books and no life.”   

She looked at him in a studying manner, eyes questioning. He accepted the unspoken challenge and met her gaze head-on; never let it be said that Inuyasha was a coward.  

 _‘And anyway, this is the way this game had always_ _gone: I annoy her and she in turn annoys me right back’_  

Whatever she saw in his eyes seemed to appease her because her lips quirked up the tiniest bit –he should really stop noticing these things, damned youkai senses or not –and immediately spit out a retort. 

“Aw, peas-for-brains. Don’t worry your little head too much about geeky glasses …and I’m sure that one day you will also manage to spread the scent of intelligence” 

Another round of little gasps could be heard from behind them. If Kagome noticed the way Asuka was constantly trying –and utterly failing –to stare back at them inconspicuously, and then typing furiously into her phone, she didn’t mention anything. 

The teacher finally arrived  _–‘Haruko-s_ _ensei_ _. No yellow tinge today, score!_ ’ –and began take the attendance of the class, prompting all –ok, most –gossiping to stop and the students to actually sit down quietly. 

“Ok class, so we’ll be starting with Organic chemistry today…Can anyone tell me what organic chemistry is?” 

Haruko-sensei looked around. As usual most students were intently considering their textbooks, trying their hardest to avoid eye contact. Some others, like Takahashi, didn’t even have the decency to try to hide their obvious inattention  _– ‘Oh for heaven’s sake, Takahashi, stop pestering_ _Tsujitani_ _with fake sutras’_  –while others –namely Higurashi –raised their hand to offer an answer. 

   

 _‘Might as well take whatever I can get…’_  

 

“Miss Higurashi, please what answer are we looking for?” 

 

The bespectacled teen pushed her glasses up and calmly answered: “Organic chemistry is the study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and preparation of carbon-containing compounds. It was originally limited to compounds produced by living organisms but has been broadened to include human-made substances. " 

 

“Excellent Higurashi-san, Organic chemistry surrounds us everywhere in our lives and is essentially what keeps our entire world together. The application of organic compounds is enormous and also includes, but is not limited to, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, food, explosives, paints, and cosmetics.” 

To no one’s surprise, Haruko-sensei’s comment was met with distracted silence. After taking a moment to sip out of her bottle she continued “Now, considering Organic chemistry is what keeps us, as well as our surroundings together in order for us not to float around in elementary forms, could anyone tell me what the basic elements of organic chemistry could be? Apart from Carbon, which obviously is the basis for everything?....Takahashi, would you care to enlighten us?” 

In the middle of preparing another fake sutra for Miroku –this one had hentai written on it –and Inuyasha being utterly immersed in the process of doodling a monk chasing after some full bosomed ladies, he only subconsciously heard his name and absentmindedly droned “Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus and Sulphur.” 

Haruko-sensei paused her search for another victim in surprise. "Excellent, that is correct Takahashi! Now, in order to visualize some aspects of possible applications for Organic chemistry, we will be conducting an experiment. Please open your books to page 136 and follow the instructions there. In the meantime-" 

 

Inuyasha chose to ignore the rest of Haruko-sensei's speech to pester Miroku with his latest master piece, only to come face to face with a gaping Kagome. 

 

 _'What? Does the bitch think I'm stupid or something?'_  

 

At the thought a scowl appeared on his face –and  _no_ , it was not because it strangely bothered him that she seemed genuinely surprised by him actually knowing an answer thank you very much –and answered with a scoff. 

“Take a picture, it’ll last longer.” 

“Well color me impressed! There  _IS_  more than air in your head after all! Though I always thought you’d be the brawns of this operation not the brains.” Kagome automatically responded, albeit with non-existing venom behind the statement, slowly coming out of her stupor and going through the motions of setting up the experiment, like the rest of the class. 

Inuyasha couldn’t suppress a light smirk at that. “It’s ok not all of us can be as awesome as I am” 

“Oh please, don’t flatter yourself! I was literally just surprised that you actually knew how to answer that all by yourself. Just like a big boy.” 

Kagome moved back slightly, rolling up the sleeves of her blazer in the process as to protect her blazer, and more importantly her arm. To no avail; the blazer sleeves kept coming in contact with the beaker.  

“Uhm, Kags…you might want to take this off, Ramamoto-sensei is monitoring and you know he’ll give you detention if there is a single smudge on your uniform” 

Miroku, who at this point had been immersed in his task of measuring the different chemicals necessary for the experiment, immediately interjected “Ah, who will be taking what off?”, his attention having been diverted to the other two girls. 

Inuyasha merely rolled his eyes at his best friend’s antics. The Sango and Kagome blinked, not quite believing and yet amazed at how fast Miroku’s attention could shift.  

Kagome didn’t let herself be deterred and unbuttoned her blazer –though admittedly she eyed Miroku warily –and pulled it off her shoulders, pausing slightly when she had it halfway off.  

 _‘What’s_ _up_ _with the_ _sudden_ _modesty? Does she-‘_  Inuyasha´s thoughts were interrupted when he finally noticed what had made her pause. In the process of removing her blazer the sleeves had shifted slightly, revealing a bruise on her inner upper arm. While the bruise itself was not that big, its shape suspiciously resembled that of a finger and it looked like there could be another one right next to it.  

 

The hanyou’s best guess was that it would  _also_  be finger-shaped. 

 

“What happened to your arm? Too clumsy to handle life? Or have you found a liking to BDSM? Feh! See monk, it’s always the quiet ones you hav’ta look out for.” 

In the back of his mind he registered Haruko-sensei briefly stopping her monologue and shooting him a stern look before continuing where she left off. 

The nerd –and her best friend, who at this point entered a whole new level of ‘mama-bear-mode’ –hadn’t seemed to notice this, since they were too busy fixing him with a glare so heated; a lesser man might have cowered before it. 

 

Inuyasha’s response was merely a triumphant grin. 

 

Higurashi chose not to answer, keeping her glare directed towards him while neatly hanging up her blazer across the back of her chair and pointedly staring towards the front where the teacher was explaining further aspects on the importance of carbon. 

Were he a wiser, mature man, the aura of deep annoyance emanating from Kagome should have prompted him to stop his prodding. If not that, then the wave of maiming intent coming from the strong tajiya sitting next to her, his best friend’s whispered pleas or the short, but most certainly deliberate, clearing of Haruko-sensei’s throat probably would have done the job. 

Unfortunately, he enjoyed getting a rise out of her way too much. (And once more, he chose not to analyze  _why_  exactly he enjoyed it more than he should.) And so, with a playful smirk –  _‘Condescending! Condescending, not playful smirk, damn it!_ ’  – he kept doing what he did best. 

 

Annoy Higurashi to no end. 

 

“So? Which one of the two is it?”  

Kagome quickly glanced at him, sending another glare his way and through gritted teeth answered: “That would be none of your business.” 

The hanyou’s smirk widened. “What four-eyes? Are you  _t_ _hat_  embarrassed, you don’t want to share with us? It’s the BDSM isn’t it?” 

 

Another cough coming from the front of the classroom could be heard. 

 

This time Kagome turned towards him. Pouring every ounce of annoyance in her voice –managing to look more intimidating in the process than he was ever willing to admit –and whispered a strangled “Drop it! As I’ve said: It. Is. None. Of. Your. Business.” Her voice rising slightly after every word, despite her best efforts of keeping it low. 

Miroku had had enough experience in dealing with Inuyasha as to know when he should better leave his friend be, meaning he had successfully ignored the silently whispered teasing coming from his left in order to concentrate on what the teacher was saying. (Surely no one could really hold it against him if his attention shifted a little bit after the word BDSM had been mentioned…)  

This, of course, meant that he immediately noticed when Haruko-sensei started to be aware of her student’s disinterest in her lesson and her increasing annoyance for it. 

Deeming it finally being enough –he really didn’t need to be in Haruko-sensei’s bad books in the first week of school –Miroku subtly jabbed the hanyou’s elbow, trying to convey wordlessly that the teacher was on to them. 

 

The named hanyou did not get the message. 

 

Inuyasha had just opened his mouth to answer, but his response was cut off by his phone vibrating in his pocket. He carefully took it out, surprised to see it was Kikyou who had texted him. 

 _‘Isn’t she in class at the moment? Since when does she text me during school hours?’_  

Forgetting his word match with Kagome for a second, he chose to open the message. Inuyasha couldn’t even remember the last time Kikyou had initiated any kind of conversation with him, the little display a couple of days ago notwithstanding, let alone texted him, so something important must have happened… 

 

 ** _Hey Baby! How has your day been? I hope not all too trying…_**  

 ** _Missing you!_**  

 ** _-_** ** _Kikyou_**   

 

The text message caught him completely off-guard. Just a few days ago, she had told him not to text her during school hours unless it was an emergency after he asked her whether they wanted to hang out after school and  _now_  she just wanted to ask  _how his day had been_? 

He had the not-so-sneaking suspicion that Asuka or some other follower had informed her about him sitting next to the subject of their on-going drama. Why else should she text him during the morning? 

 _‘_ _Just h_ _ow fucked up is it that I believe it to be more likely for my gir_ _lfriend to be texting me out of_ _an emergency_ _,_ _than simply because she’s genuinely interested in my life?’_  

He set his phone on the table. He would answer her later, he had more pressing matters to deal with for now: like coming up with an appropriate response to Higurashi. 

The girl in question gave him a knowing look. (There was something else in her gaze –something he decidedly chose to ignore. He had been doing a lot of that lately). 

Just as he was about to answer his phone vibrated a second time. 

The preview of the text alone was enough to send him into another stupor. 

 

 ** _Baby? Is everything ok?_**  

 

It was another text from Kikyou. Less than a minute after he had read her last text message. 

 _‘What’s up with her? No message from her in days and now two in the span of 3 minutes?’_  

A strange thought entered his mind.  _‘Could it be that she just texted me because she saw I had read her message and didn’t answer_ _immediate_ _ly?’_  

Just as the hanyou was about to answer the text message –disregarding that the reason he was doing so was not to actually calm his girlfriend, but rather to get her off his back –the angry voice of Haruko-sensei interrupted him. 

“Takahashi, will you give us the honor of finally paying attention? Or are you too busy whispering sweet nothings to Higurashi?” 

Both teens stiffened up. The entire classroom grew eerily quiet. Inuyasha was too stupefied to give an immediate answer. The nerd, fighting against the furious blush adorning her face, tried to rectify the situation. “Sensei, no it’s not like that!” 

“Oh nonsense Higurashi! You two have been more occupied with each other than the curriculum for the entirety of this class.” 

Turning her attention to the inu-hanyou she continued “Mr. Takahashi; since you seem to enjoy Ms. Higurashi’s attention so much, I’ll do you the favor of granting you her company for the rest of the year.”  

Haruko-sensei paused briefly. Her two students were looking at her with pure dread reflected in their eyes. Interestingly enough, their companions looked just as alarmed, while there was an excited buzz coming from the rest of the classroom. ‘ _Kids these days…seriously judging by their faces the only thing missing is the_ _popcorn_ _!_ ’  

As she was about to announce what she had in mind, Principal Bokusenō’s statement at the beginning of the year, serving as a reminder to the entire staff that for group and partner projects, it should be avoided that Higurashi and Takahashi were partnered with anyone but the Kuwashima girl and the Tsujitani boy, came to mind. While it was never exclusively stated, the old geezer’s tone, unusually strict and serious for him, made it clear that this was more of an order than a request. 

 

Why the Principle thought it was a good idea to micromanage his teachers in that manner was a mystery to her.  

 

_‘Ah what the hell, I’ll be retiring after this year anyway…Besides, it is due time those little brats remembered that they can’t get away with everything they’d like.’_

 

With renewed resolve the older youkai now addressed both teens. “Takahashi, Higurashi…You will be assigned as each other’s lab partners. Congratulations!” 

 

Haruko-sensei’s statement was followed by a unanimous choir of “WHAT!?” 

Sango immediately spoke up “Haruko-sensei, Kagome is always partnered up with me!” 

Miroku chimed in “Bokusenō-sensei assured us that Inuyasha would be partnered up with me as well. There are special circumstances-” 

“Shut up Bouzou! Look, there is no way –“ 

“Takahashi I will not be tolerating this!” 

“No, please sensei! I really need to work together with Sango-chan –“ 

“Higurashi, that is out of the question-” 

“Oh please! See, the nerd also opposes to the whole thing, so it’d be ludicrous to –“ 

“Takahashi, as I was saying-” 

Sango spoke up once more, desperately trying to help her friend out. “Haruko-sensei, clearly there has to be some kind of misunderstanding-”  

“Enough!” rang out with a shrill voice louder than anyone would have expected to come out of such a tiny person.  “I will not be entering any discussions; my decision is final! You will be partnered up until the end of the year. Now; since that is settled, I’d like to continue with my lesson. So if carbon is the basis of organic chemistry and -" 

Even though Haruko sensei continued on with her lecture, no one was really listening. Sango and Miroku were horrified, yet simultaneously amused (though one managed to hide it better than the other one), Kagome had no idea what to think and Inuyasha was currently more worried about the consequences this will have.  

Judging by the amount of outraged gasps, cries and furious typing noises coming from behind him there was no doubt in his mind that by the end of the day ( ‘ _Screw that! B_ _y the end of next period_ _!_ ’) the entire school would know about him partnering up with Higurashi. 

 _“OH. My. God! There is no way they can deny it now!”_  

 _“Poor_ _Kikyou_ _!”_  

 _“She is totally going to kill him…”_  

The hanyou flinched with every sentence his ears picked up. ‘ _Man this is going to get messy_ ’  

Kagome had a look of utter shock on her face. She was a few shades paler than usual. Almost as if in a trance she slowly turned to face him. As soon as their eyes met, he was sure she had come to the same conclusion as he had. Furthermore, he was sure that despite their differences, the same thought was going through their heads at that moment: 

 

 _‘Oh joy…’_  

 

* * *

 

Doi-sensei was currently lecturing on the stylistic elements used during the romantic period of English literature. Kikyou’s self-acclaimed “best friend” Tsubaki was sitting next to her and currently doodling a very detailed sketch of a snake in her notebook.  

She never quite understood why exactly Tsubaki considered her to be her “best friend” –Kikyou had never really given her any inclination she agreed with the term. (Though it was undeniable that out of her followers, Tsubaki was the least annoying) 

Over time Kikyou had come to accept –and in fact even enjoy –her company. In the midst of her followers, Tsubaki was the only one who was not afraid to openly speak her mind, even if –and especially when –it contradicted something Kikyou had previously said. She was refreshingly blunt –if not a little jealous of Kikyou’s (almost) immediate popularity. Kikyou noticed her jealousy bled through her eyes from time to time; Tsubaki was mostly able to hide it, though every once in a while, the envy, jealousy –sometimes even a hint of hate managed to shine through. 

Somewhere between reading about Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein being a prime example of focusing on the emotions and their effects on the character versus the actual action itself and trying not to fall asleep in the process (Kikyou was an A student, English literature was usually a subject she quite enjoyed, but even  _she_  had her limits), Kikyou’s phone buzzed next to her open textbook. 

She briefly had a look at her phone. The screen showed Asuka’s name as the sender and according to the preview it had something to do with the Higurashi girl. Kikyou had to refrain herself from giving into the urge of rolling her eyes.  

Ever since the scene took place a couple of days prior, she had been getting non-stop text messages and other kinds of alerts on Kagome’s activities (translating to virtually  _any_  interaction with Inuyasha what-so-ever), and many reassurances of everyone’s support, how the “nerd” was a homewrecker and how Inuyasha would never leave her if he was a smart man. 

 

In all honesty, Kikyou couldn’t hear it anymore. 

 

Which is why she had planned to ignore said text message completely, or at the very least until the end of the lesson – Asuka might not be the brightest, but she was a killer performer and they needed her for the championships this year –that was until she caught sight of Tsubaki’s mischievous, and unnervingly knowing, facial expression. Her “best friend” had stopped doodling, her full attention now on Kikyou as her lips lifted into a smirk. 

“What? Aren’t you going to check it? Who knows, maybe Asuka or some other posse saw the nerd getting freaky with Inuyasha…not that I’d blame her if she did, he’s got absolutely gorgeous hair; so silky, soft and silver…” 

She drifts off for a second, a dreamy look in her eyes before they focus on Kikyou again, the smirk widening to even more.  

“But then again, perhaps you’re not really worried about that happening…or just don’t care.” 

 

Sometimes Tsubaki really was too perceptive for her own good. 

 

With a quick glance to the front of the classroom to confirm that Doi-sensei was still blissfully talking to himself facing the blackboard –and also still had not noticed he had lost his audience a long time ago –Kikyou took her phone and opened the message Asuka had sent her. Tsubaki immediately leaned in over her shoulder reading the message while her smirk, one Kikyou feared would now permanently be in place, grew even more and was now appearing decidedly more malicious than mischievous. 

 

 ** _Hey_** ** _Kiks_** ** _! Just to give you a heads up:_** ** _The_** ** _Uber-Nerd is sitting right next to your man._** ** _Don’t worry though,_** ** _Inu_** ** _seems put off by it. And even if he changes his mind about being put off by her, we’ll make sure the bitch won’t try any funny business._**  

 ** _I’ll keep you updated!_**  

 ** _-_** ** _Asuk_** ** _a_** ** _**_**  

 

Kikyou  _did_  roll her eyes at that.  _‘Just as I had predicted…it’s about the_ _Higurashi_ _girl_ _._ ’ Before she could even contemplate what kind of farce she’d come up with for an answer, Tsubaki once again interrupted her thoughts. 

“Ooh, so the little girl  _is_ making moves on your man.” Another chuckle escapes her and Kikyou couldn’t shake the feeling of trepidation overcoming her as Tsubaki opened her mouth once again: “Now…”Kiks”? Really, Asuka needs to work on her Nickname skills. But anyway, aren’t you the slightest bit worried Inuyasha might actually do something about it? After all, you guys haven’t really seen each other a lot in the las couple of weeks, right? Maybe he’ll want some attention and since the nerd seems to be willing to give it to him…he might just take the opportunity. Wouldn’t it be a shame to lose your hunk of doggy-meat to the nerd, a regular human, without any kind of spiritual powers, no less?” 

Kikyou’s eyes immediately found Tsubaki’s. They held each other’s gaze for a moment. 

“Inuyasha would never break up with me” 

Tsubaki’s gaze turned knowingly smug. Kikyou couldn’t shake off the feeling she had just been tested –and Tsubaki seemed to have gotten just the answers she had wanted to hear.   

With a fake look of innocence painting her face, Tsubaki challenged: “Well, aren’t you going to do something about it? You’ve been awfully distant with him, who knows, maybe he’ll just grow tired of you. Or replace you with the Higurashi girl…you guys do kind of look alike…” 

Kikyou merely responded with a glare. 

“Sheesh, no need to over-react. Go on then!” 

Kikyou waited a moment to figure out what it was she was going to type. Apparently she had been taking too long; Yura swiftly grabbed the phone out of her hands and started typing for her.  

“There you go; you don’t even have to hit send anymore. I never knew you were such a scaredy-cat”  

After another quick glance to the front of the classroom –Doi-Sensei was still obliviously monologuing to himself –Kikyou snatched her phone out of Tsubaki’s hands and read the sent message. 

   

 ** _Hey Baby! How has your day been? I hope not all too trying…_**  

 ** _Missing you!_**  

 ** _-_** ** _Kikyou_**   

 

“Was the “baby” really necessary? It doesn’t really sound like me, does it?” 

Tsubaki let out an audible scoff. Giggles broke out across the classroom and Doi-Sensei was forced to stop his lecture. 

“Yamada-san, is there anything you wish to share with the class?” 

Kikyou tensed at that. The entire classes focused had shifted to her neighbor; most of them awaiting an exciting tale in the hopes of gaining more juicy information to talk about during the next break –pathetic really, but considering she was the main topic on the school gossip, the head cheerleader/miko was more than a little apprehensive to what Tsubaki’s answer might be.  

For a brief moment it seemed as if Tsubaki was contemplating on actually sharing their topic of conversation, before looking Doi-Sensei straight in the eye and gifting him with a lazy grin. 

“Oh, nothing in particular Sir, just musing over your theory of how it was ultimately the creature’s fault that he was ostracized due to his violent nature” 

“You do not agree with this…interpretation?” 

“Not at all”, Tsubaki answered, a look of triumph adorning her face. “In fact, Kikyou and I were just discussing the flaws in this theory, seeing as our current…society” –Tsubaki flashed a quick, pointed look towards a group of full blooded youkai in the right corner of the classroom –“would not really function if we all lived under this premise…” 

A stunned silence fell across the classroom; some students shifted nervously in their seats, while others simply stared in disbelief.  

Kikyou herself was wondering where Tsubaki was going with this. The truce, forcing humans and youkais to live in “peace” had been negotiated under shaky terms at best, outright threats at worst, and while there was an unspoken consensus to display a superficial acceptance of everyone, the races rarely ever really mixed or built acquaintances that surpassed the “polite small-talk” stage. Recently there had been a trend towards more inclusiveness though; and having a head cheerleader, who furthermore was in possession of spiritual powers, dating an equally popular  _hanyou_  in their school only seemed to intensify this “spirit of integration”. 

Doi-Sensei blinked twice, at a loss at what to say, before his eyes brightened and he let out a barking laugh. 

“What an interesting point Yamada-san, Hidaka-san…In fact, why don’t we all take some time to reflect upon this? I expect you all to hand in an essay, elaborating your views on this particular topic…I believe about 4000 words should be about enough to cover this, no?” 

A collective groan fell across the classroom following Doi-Sensei’s statement –there went their weekend. Their teacher turned facing the black board again while incorporating Tsubaki’s argument into his lecture. 

Needless to say, he lost the interest of the room almost immediately. Tsubaki meanwhile merely faced some of the annoyed student body with one of her more sarcastic smiles and proceeded to doodle in her notebook. 

 

 _‘How does she manage to still pay attention_ _during class_ _while_ _simultaneously_ _talking to and_ _distracting me?’_  

 

After a while the Yamada girl turned to Kikyou once more and grabbed her phone and, not even bothering to try and hide her motion, started typing once more. 

“So, to get back to the point before we were so rudely interrupted…if I recall correctly it’s what you used to call him…and maybe you stopping is precisely the issue here…” 

She turned the phone, now showing Kikyou the screen. The previous text message had been joined by a new one: 

 

 ** _Baby? Is everything ok?_**  

 

The head cheerleader raised an eyebrow and was about to ask if that wasn’t being a little excessive, when Tsubaki interrupted her once again with an other one of her smirks. 

“See those two blue little checkmarks on the screen? It means he has read your message and chose to ignore you. If you keep up sending the poor guy mixed signals, you really will be pushing him further away…and while he may be surprisingly popular considering he’s just a hanyou, don’t forget that it was initially dating him that brought you to the pinnacle of your popularity scale…who knows what losing him might do to you.” 

Kikyou sent a hard look to Tsubaki, opening her mouth to deny it, to say that she had dated Inuyasha – _is dating_ _Inuyasha_ _, damn it_ –out of a feeling of mutual liking, understanding and trust, but something was holding her back. 

 

 _‘Maybe it’s the fact that there is at least a kernel of truth in her statement’_  

 

It was true: Kikyou had genuinely been interested in Inuyasha when they met. He was handsome, had a bit of an attitude but whenever the two of them were alone together he was surprisingly sweet and thoughtful…and when he became the most popular male in their year and she was well on her way to becoming the most popular girl, it was almost expected of them to start dating. So when he finally asked her two years ago –blushing a little, not that he’d ever admit to it –she said yes, in the hopes that her interest and “liking” would deepen into something more one day.  

 

Unfortunately, that was not the case. 

 

It wasn’t even necessarily his fault; he truly had acted like an ideal boyfriend, albeit a little reckless and/or violent at times, but he always made sure to show he cared in his own way. After all, he couldn’t really help it that his lesser blood forced him into less…controlled behavior. Really, if it weren’t for his demonic blood, Kikyou could really imagine in spending the rest of her life with him…but alas, that was not the case.  

So instead, she would stay in this relationship until the end of high school when she would have a legitimate reason to break up with him without risking her position in the school hierarchy.  

She had been musing silently for a little too long, seeing as Tsubaki had regained her wolfish grin. Kikyou had apparently been tested a second time, and once again Tsubaki seemed to have gotten just the answer she had wanted.  She in turn, merely looked on with that annoyingly knowing look in her eye and shrugged. 

“And of course we cannot to forget the fact you love him from the bottom of your heart and couldn’t imagine spending your life without him.” 

 

Kikyou couldn’t possibly have missed the sarcastic edge in Tsubaki’s statement. 

 

She was seriously reconsidering her previous assessment on Tsubaki’s annoying-ness. 

 

Instead of responding, Kikyou took her phone and was about to put it away –Doi-Sensei was bound to face them again, and she really didn’t want to get caught texting in class –when it vibrated again.  

She looked down on a reflex and her eyes softened instantaneously a small, happy smile playing on her lips as she read the name on her screen –the ever observant Tsubaki noticed, of course. It had been the first genuine display of emotion she had witnessed coming from the other miko all year, but wisely did not mention anything yet. She was too interested in how this would end up to ruin it with a comment… _yet_. 

Despite the reservation of actually being caught in class, Kikyou stole another glance towards the front and opened the message: 

 

**_Hey, good news! I get to actually leave the hospital completely today! The Doc said I’m as good as new!_**  

 

Kikyou can feel her smile widening, by now she’s sure Tsubaki had noticed –she had –but couldn’t care less about it. The unfamiliar urge to squeal of happiness surged and Kikyou had to actively contain herself from giving in to said urge.  

 

 ** _That really IS good news! I’m so happy for you  :-)_** ** _. We’ll have to celebrate!_**  

 

The miko was already going through a mental list of places to go and things to do when her phone vibrated again.  

 

 ** _I’d be happy to celebrate with you any day. How do you feel about the park? I’d really like to be somewhere outdoors after being cooped up in here for the last weeks…_**  

 

 ** _Yes! Of course!_**  

 

**_Are you free later today?_**  

 

 ** _For you? Always._**  

 

Tsubaki watched the sickeningly sweet display out of the corner of her eyes. While she couldn’t see what exactly had caused the school’s princess to lose her controlled composure and to act like an actual teenage girl but she could easily take a guess. A decidedly evil smirk bloomed on her face. 

 

_'Poor girl has no idea how obvious she's being'_

 

Tsubaki knew it was highly inappropriate to feel the immense sensation of Schadenfreude and amusement at the expense of the damage being done to her "best friend's" relationship but she couldn't help herself. 

 

After all, it wasn’t every day that Saint Kikyou was caught cheating in general, much less on her doting -albeit hanyou -boyfriend, who just happened to be the most popular boy in school. 

 

 _‘Seems like_ _Kikyou_ _won’t remain the Queen Bee after_ _all..._ ’ 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there you go: chapter two. Thank you for everyone who hasn't given up on this story and I promise to post the next chapter soon (without a three year break -I swear!)
> 
> By the way: Yes, all surnames are based on the Surnames of the character’s original Voice Actor…well apart from the obvious Higurashi and Takahashi because of reasons… 
> 
> And yes, I’m using the principle of the blue checkmarks from WhatsApp… ;-) 
> 
> Still in desperate need for a Beta btw.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to comment! Also, I'm in desperate need for a beta


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